Criticism endowed: reflections on a debacle
by Hilton Kramer
On the NEA fellowships for art critics.
Features
Marriage and morals among the Victorians
by Gertrude Himmelfarb
On the marriages and morality of Victorian-era London.
Who is Gabriel Fielding?
by Frances Taliaferro
On Gabriel Fielding’s novels.
Zola: the father’s tale
by Frederick Brown
On François Zola’s life path.
An apparition of the Villa Doria Pamphili
by Mark Helprin
On nature and art.
Herman Melville
by Walker Percy
On society and loneliness in American literature.
Art
Art and urbanity: the Manet retrospective
by Jed Perl
On “Manet,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Theater
’morning, Marsha
by Mimi Kramer
On Marsha Norman’s ’night, Mother.
Books
The other Mahler
by Samuel Lipman
Two poets
by Robert Richman
A naked Wolfe
by Bruce Bawer
Do letters kill?
by Tom Paulin
A review of A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers by Hugh Kenner.
Fiction chronicle
Will Raymond Carver please be quiet, please?
by Erich Eichman
On Cathedral by Raymond Carver.